4-02-08 Demon dogs

I had a great night sleep last night. I got 7 hours of sleep and I’m so happy.  It feels so good to have a full night sleep. Today I was riding from Raleigh, NC to Columbia, SC.  It felt great not to be riding in the car.  When I was biking I got up to 30 mph for a moment.  On my 2nd ride, I had the pleasure of being chased by a dog for a few blocks.  I only saw it once then I sped away from that demon dog.  After that I got surprised by 3 more dogs running and barking at me.  Luckily there was a fence between us. Next time I ride I’m going to get better then 16 mph.  I know I can because I did it at 24hour fitness. I got up to 26mph of the hour and now I can only get 17 or 18 mph.   Maybe if I imagine the dogs are behind me I’ll hit my goal.    When I was riding in the car with Ally and Jacob, I was placing bets on who makes a better biker, a soccer player (Ally) or baseball player (Jacob).  I'm  betting on Ally as she is really strong and she can bike upright.  When they started their ride with Thomsen Ally and Jacob hung together and did not let the other pass.  At the end Ally actually caught up to Thomsen and he rides fast.  He can hit 30mph.  I found he is really strong riding up hills and flats, but he doesn’t like riding down hills.  Funny as the downhill is the easy part. Today was a great day for riding as it was sunny and there was no traffic on the roads.  After all the rain maybe we are going to have nice sunny weather for a while.  I think people are starting to know each other better now.  At least we are starting to see some of each others quirks as Ally calls them.   Tyrone is really funny when he eats because he really takes it seriously.  Arielle likes to wear just the right thing each day and Jacob likes to play jokes on people.  Tim is pretty funny and likes to play practical jokes on people and Sydney (our 10 year old) is sort of like a little sister.  Jeff (one of our chaperones) is very serious and Jennifer is really funny and friendly.  Thomsen is funny because he'll act real serious but most of the time he's just kidding around and most people don’t know it.  Its fun to watch them squirm. Paul is our website person and he can be pretty serious, especially when it comes to journals.  I don’t like to write so Im way behind on my journals and he gets pretty mad at times.   Pat (another chaperone) is very nice, she's like a mother to us.  I don’t know much about Drew (our other chaperone) because he's pretty quiet and doesn’t say much.